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and were maybe a little more edgy and aggressive than other people. But its how we grew up, it was from where we grew up. In this industry its more than too often misunderstood and maligned, the attitude, the style, the influence. its not that we are all “act a like” we are all a like and it has rubbed people the wrong way in the past. This may not really be a story about our town, but in a round about way it is…

I grew up “on top of the hill” barely on top of the hill just up from a midwest version of a housing project in the late 70’s early 80’s this was not a place you wanted to go near. We were sure there were bodies buried in there, our school busses wouldnt go in there, and if you rode your bike within a block you deserved to get you “ass kicked and your shit tooken”. I was probably 11 or 12 when I heard a story that I couldnt believe and got me hooked on the BMX scene 100%.

The guy that worked at the bike shop, Bike ‘n Hike, where we all hung out had a brand new chrome GT for 3 days, won a huge Pro race with it and then had it stolen the next day and it was in “TurnKey”, the projects… Wow that sucks, gone forever.

No.

Rumor had it that dude went into the project by himself at night, we all figured he must have had a gun, and came out alive with the bike. I didnt believe it and sprinted the 10 blocks to the bike shop on my red generic Schwinn’ish bike with the gold Elina seat with red lighting bolts and yellow snake belly tires to see if this was true, it was. It was the first time I had actually opened my mouth to talk to Rick, the dude who worked at the shop, other than to say I just looking around or “how much is that sticker?”

The whole thing not only solidified my love for riding bikes, but it gave all of us a boost that we needed to hold our heads up or pretend that we were bad ass because someone who rode bikes like we do was kicking down doors in the projects to get his bike back. It was a huge thing for kids who had to fight most days just to keep from getting their bike stolen riding to the park.

A few moths ago, this happened. And the same guy did the same thing for the next generation of kids who love riding their bmx bikes. It was a huge story, nationally blown up, but just normal for us and where we are from. So, Im vomiting all this crap out today because this morning, while taking a 5 minuted coffee break at his 7am skatepark session, Rick Moliterno’s bike was taken out of a pile of bikes. While there are people in the industry who think well, he probably “has 100 bikes” or something like that, not true and not the point of all this. He has one bike, and its a pretty big deal, this bike. He would love to have it back and this is what he told me in an email about the bike:

My bike was my first and only bike made here in our shop. It had unique engraving on the head tube and drop outs. It had a custom green paint job to match my 1963 Ford Galaxie. The fork had straight cut legs and a freestyle steer tube instead of race. The compression bolt was a sample we never sold.

It had a titanium Standard front peg that is like 10 years old. Oh yeah, the frame has euro bb and a 27.0 seat tube…2 things no other freestyle frames that are up to date have. Man, I loved that damn bike! It had so much I liked plus being the first one from here and being the one I am getting back to riding full time on again….

Watch eBay and the forums and boards, let us know if you see it, if you have it bring it back. Local kids, keep in touch, on the interwebs, you can hit us up at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  twitter.com/standardbykeco or hit Rick up on Facebook.

This is kind of a long winded way to tell you all that Rick Moliterno, owner of Standard Byke Company had his bike stolen and would like some help getting it back. But its a little deeper than that this time.

Thanks in advance for all your help, please share this story with all your peoples.

Sean Murphy